Majeed and Westfield lose appeals against spot-fixing convictions – Cricket News Update
Appeals registered by London-based cricket agent http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Essex-c783 pacer Mervyn Westfield, against their convictions on spot-fixing charges in separate cases, have been rejected by the Court of Appeal in London.
Majeed, a resident of Croydon, south London, was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison by the Southwark Crown Court in November 2011, following his conviction in a spot-fixing case. The 36-year-old was charged with having served as the agent
of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013 in Lord’s, played in August
2010.
Westfield was convicted and sentenced to four months on similar charges – he accepted up to 6000 pounds in exchange for deliberately under-performing during a match between Essex and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Durham-c782 in September 2009, becoming the first English County cricket player
to be sent to prison on charges of corruption.
Both appeals, which challenged the convictions meted out to Majeed and Westfield, were heard together on May 24, and were rejected by the Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge and two other judges in London.
Speaking in the context of the rejected appeals, the Lord Judge commented on the increasing menace of corruption in cricket, and the growth in the number of cases involving players accepting bribes in exchange for agreeing to influence the outcome of a match.
“These otherwise unconnected appeals against conviction arise in the same notorious context, 'spot fixing' in cricket matches. For cricket betting is not new. It has, however, become multi-faceted,” he said, adding that it had now become possible to fix
not just the outcome of an entire match, but particular aspects of the game, such as the amount of wickets taken or runs scored in a specific over.
He went on to shed light on the gravity of dishonesty in the sport, which led players to deceive not only their teammates and the spectators, but also a wider audience via television.
“Cricket is widely televised, not only in the country where the match is being played, but throughout the cricket-playing world, and indeed further afield,” he pointed out.
“The prizes for successful gambling can be very great, and the scope for corruption is therefore considerable. For the health, indeed the survival, of the game as a truly competitive sport, it must be eradicated,” he concluded.
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